As you all know we hardly ever eat fried foods, the occasional oven roasted French Fries or Sweet Potato fries left aside. This doesn’t mean we don’t love to eat this, don’t get me wrong. Everyone likes to indulge now and then, no? I just don’t own a fryer.
The reasons I don’t own a fryer are (yet):
a/ the amount of oil or fat used is a little too high for my healthy eating standards – French Fries are restaurant treats
b/I am kind of high sensitive, especially for odors and smells and I have horrible childhood memories of some of my friends getting in our car in the morning smelling all oily and greasy because their mom baked fries the night before. And the malodorous nightmare continues when we visit my grandparents at their seaside apartment and they decide to serve their beloved chicken croquettes and French Fries. The whole building enjoys the smell and the apartment reeks like a snack bar for at least a day.
C/ when I remember my mom baking fries, I mostly remember the cleaning up afterwards, so time consuming? Fat splatters everywhere not to mention the basket of the fryer, and the changing of fat so now and then.
Because of these reasons I was never even tempted to buy a fryer.
What changed?
When Philips contacted me last month and asked me to try out their Airfryer I was a little skeptical at the beginning but after reading up on this new machine I decided this would be very interesting to put my assumptions to the test. Philips promises the ideal solution to all the above mentioned reasons of why I don’t own a fryer:
- 80% less fat used than with a normal fryer
- Easy to clean, it fits in your dishwasher, how great is this?
- Hardly a smell because you fry with – it’s all in the name- air
So when the Airfryer arrived accompanied by a package of Lutosa Fries and chicken fingers I decided my kids would get a treat on Wednesday afternoon. Good school grades need to be celebrated so this time no cake or home-made ice cream but French Fries and chicken fingers with a salad on the side.
The result was really amazing. I didn’t add any extra oil to the frozen fries and they were very yummie. As promised crispy on the outside, tender on the inside. A winner.
Last the weekend we had some friends over and I first prepared some kind of spring roll as a starter. Delicious filo dough filled with red onion, cilantro, cumin and smoked duck filet. I have coated the filo dough with some olive oil and the spring rolls came out really crisp. Everybody loved it.
Great filo Spring rolls from the Airfryer
I also tried out home-made Sweet Potato Fries. Here I followed the recipe from the Airfryer recipe booklet and added just a little less oil and divided the cooking time since sweet potatoes don’t need as much cooking as regular potatoes.
Sweet potatoes ready for the Airfryer
Once again I was thrilled with the result. The sweet potato fries were a winner too, once again with almost no added oil. The taste of air fried sweet potatoes is really sweet and natural. No fried food taste, almost like they were oven roasted but much crispier.
What I like about the Airfryer is:
- It is really easy to use and the Airfryer heats very quickly, only 3 minutes to reach 200°C. My oven can’t beat this.
- You use indeed less fat and the excess oil and fat from your food is drained during cooking, a nice plus.
- Crispy result even with home-made vegetable fries. The Philips promise of crispy on the outside, soft and tender on the inside is true for the fries I have tested. And not to forget they were really tasty.
- Great App for recipe inspiration, easy to use and nice to take a look to see what possibilities you have with the Airfryer
- The Airfryer is multi-functional. I didn’t have a lot time to test this machine, before publishing this article but I would love to try out spare ribs, pineapple and shrimps.
- The lack of smell….really this would be what I love most about the Airfryer. Honestly you do smell the fried foods, but not more than when using a traditional oven.
- Easy to clean. I didn’t even have to put in my dishwasher (which is possible, don’t forget.)
In fact the Airfryer functions really well for spring rolls,French Fries, chicken fingers….What I love most is the big difference in the result of the French Fries. Oven baked fries aren’t that crispy, tender and yummie, really. We compared.
Conclusion?
A P P R O V E D– The Airfryer is moving with us to Knokke this summer for tending to “after beach” cravings of the kids and their friends. If I don’t take it with me I think they will kill me. They already told their friends about the great fries and all the other stuff mom is going to make for them this summer in the new machine….No way back!
You can find more information about the Airfryer here.
Philips has also some nice videos about the usage of the Airfryer, check it out here.
FYI there is a promotion from May 21st 2015 untill June 30th 2015 – when you buy an Airfryer you get a reduction of 20€ and if you don’t like the Airfryer after a 30 days testing period you can return it and get your money returned. Great deal no?
Must Be Yummie tested the Avance Airfryer XL with Rapid Air Technology- suggested retail price 274,99€.
Disclosure: this review is a sponsored post but all content has been written and tested by Must Be Yummie.